Testament guitarist, Alex Skolnick, is featured in a new interview with Metal Edge, in which he digs into his genre-bending guitar stylings, discusses coming up during the rise of Bay Area thrash, and offers an update on Testament's next album. Read an excerpt below.
Metal Edge: What do you feel set Testament apart from the pack?
Alex Skolnick: "Hard to say because I think any band is defined by all its components. But having said that, Testament certainly had some different components. We were a part of that scene, but we didn't sound like anything else then. And that came from us all liking different things, like punk rock, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, black metal, all this different stuff, you know? So, what ended up happening was that the riffs and songs had all these different flavors."
Metal Edge: I always felt that you injected virtuosity into thrash, akin to what Marty Friedman did a few years later with Megadeth.
Skolnick: "That's fair. I mean… I was a student of Joe Satriani when I was in high school, and I was an Eddie Van Halen fanatic. So, even though I had no interest in being in a glam metal band, I liked guitarists like George Lynch, Warren DeMartini and guys like that. These were guys who clearly were listening to Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, and Joe Satriani and were applying it to being in a commercial rock band. But it was considered crazy to play a band like Testament and play the way those guys did. Most thrash guys wanted to lean more toward Motörhead, focusing on a garage-rock playing style.
So, these days, it's not as unusual to have polished guitar players in thrash bands; back in the '80s, it was unusual. So, when I joined Testament, I felt like an alien. But a couple of years later, when Marty Friedman joined Megadeth, I felt like, 'Okay, I'm not alone anymore.' But at the time, yeah, I felt like a real freak being in a band like Testament and playing polished shred style. I'm glad it's not such a radical thing anymore."
Metal Edge: Is Testament working on a new album?
Skolnick: "Yes, we are. Eric [Peterson] and I have gotten together and written a bunch of new music. It's funny, though, because, in the old days, we'd take down our ideas and use a tape recorder to document them. But those old four-track recorders never sounded great. But now, the technology is so great that you can record with a digital audio workstation on a computer, and it sounds incredibly close to how the finished album will sound. We've gone from having to convince the other guy it's going to sound great to having equipment that shows us what we're working with immediately.
So, it's been fun. We're getting all our ideas together and then working on combining those ideas. But these sketches that we have are very close to being songs. I'd say that after a few more rounds of that, we'll move on to the next step of getting vocals dialled in, adding drums, and all the rest. We need a few more rounds of that. And then we'll move on to the next step: getting vocals dialled in and drums and everything. But I'm excited about the next record."
Read the complete at Metal Edge.
Earlier this week, Nuclear Blast announced that the complete Testament catalog has been acquired and the band signed for an additional three albums in the future. The signing took place before the band’s fiery performance at Hellfest last weekend. Fans will now be able to listen to the band's seminal albums The Legacy and The New Order on the DSP of their choice.
Chuck Billy states, "After a long history of making music and Testament teaming up with Nuclear Blast in 2008 with The Formation of Damnation to the current release Titans of Creation, we have taken it to the next level and have reclaimed our 6 albums from Atlantic Records and have delivered them to Nuclear Blast to be re-released. Along with the Atlantic catalog, Testament will sign a new 3-album deal with NB worldwide. We are so grateful to be with the Best Heavy Metal label in the world that will spread Testament's Legacy."
Eric Peterson comments, "We signed with NB back in 2008 and it’d been a perfect fit for us ever since then. Incidentally, our older catalog with Atlantic Records - The Legacy, The New Order, Practice What You Preach, Souls of Black, The Ritual, and Low - have returned to us and we feel it’s a great new start to have NB Release these albums again with some new unreleased artwork, photos, etc. Also, we will be signing a new three-album deal with them! So the future for Metal is looking very, very bright! Cheers!"
Tommy Jones Nuclear Blast US Label Manager adds: "One of my favorite guitars as a kid was my dark red Ibanez Saber (540S) with the wizard neck. I purchased that guitar to sound like Alex Skolnick who played that model and color back in the day. So all these years later to be signing those OG, genre-defining Testament albums that were such an early influence like The New Order, Practice What You Preach, and Souls of Black, as well as new Testament albums to Nuclear Blast, is completing a full circle for me. Truly an 'If the 15-year-old me could see this' type of moment. It’s time to continue 'The Legacy' with Nuclear Blast!”
Stream The Legacy here. Stream The New Order here.
